Spahan

Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is located south of Tehran and is the capital of Isfahan Province. The city has a population of approximately 2,220,000, making it the third-largest city in Iran, after Tehran and Mashhad, and the second-largest metropolitan area.

Isfahan is located at the intersection of the two principal routes that traverse Iran, north–south and east–west. Isfahan flourished between the 9th and 18th centuries. Under the Safavid dynasty, Isfahan became the capital of Persia, for the second time in its history, under Shah Abbas the Great. The city retains much of its history. It is famous for its Perso–Islamic architecture, grand boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, tiled mosques, and minarets. Isfahan also has many historical buildings, monuments, paintings, and artifacts. The fame of Isfahan led to the Persian proverb ''Esfahān nesf-e-jahān ast'' (Isfahan is half (of) the world). Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is one of the largest city squares in the world, and UNESCO has designated it a World Heritage Site.

Etymology

''Isfahan'' is derived from Middle Persian , which is attested to by various Middle Persian seals and inscriptions, including that of the Zoroastrian magi Kartir. The present-day name is the Arabicized form of ''Ispahan'' (unlike Middle Persian, but similar to Spanish, New Persian does not allow initial consonant clusters such as ''sp''). The region is denoted by the abbreviation ''GD'' (Southern Media) on Sasanian coins. In Ptolemy's ''Geographia'', it appears as (), which translates to "place of gathering for the army". It is believed that derived from "the armies", the Old Persian plural of , from which is derived () 'army' and (, 'soldier', literally 'of the army') in Middle Persian. Some of the other ancient names include Gey, Jey (old form Zi), Park, and Judea.

History

Human habitation of the Isfahan region can be traced back to the Palaeolithic period. Archaeologists have recently found artifacts dating back to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages.

Bronze Age

What became the city of Isfahan likely emerged and gradually developed over the course of the Elamite civilisation (2700–1600 BCE).

Zoroastrian era

Under Median rule, a commercial entrepôt began to show signs of more sedentary urbanism, steadily growing into a noteworthy regional center that benefited from the exceptionally fertile soil on the banks of the Zayandehrud River, in a region called Aspandana or Ispandana.

When Cyrus the Great unified Persian and Median lands into the Achaemenid Empire, the religiously and ethnically diverse city of Isfahan became an early example of the king's fabled religious tolerance. It was Cyrus who, having just taken Babylon, made an edict in 538 BCE declaring that Jews in Babylon could return to Jerusalem. Later, some of the freed Jews settled in Isfahan instead of returning to their homeland. The 10th-century Persian historian Ibn al-Faqih wrote:

The Parthians (247 BCE–224 CE), continued the tradition of tolerance after the fall of the Achaemenids, fostering a Hellenistic dimension within Iranian culture and the political organization introduced by Alexander the Great's invading armies. Under the Parthians, Arsacid governors administered the provinces of the nation from Isfahan, and the city's urban development accelerated to accommodate the needs of a capital city.

The next empire to rule Persia, the